Hi All, I’m shooting web photos and all is great except the YG is
washed out and looks silver. I’m shooting inside a white tent and
thinking the yg is picking up reflection. I’m off to the hardware to
get metallic gold paint and will make reflector cards. Any other
solutions?

i paid a very good photographer to have photos taken recently and
that is exactly what he did – he used the equivalent of tin foil but
gold on a card and it made the photos really “pop” – he even did
some with the same piece in silver and gold side by side where he
held the silver card angled at the silver piece and the gold angled
towards the gold piece, and they came out looking very distinct. so i
think you’re on the right track! if the gold paint doesn’t work, i
think photo shops sell gold cards.

Hello David. There many various but similar methods for good
jewellery photography results. My advice to anyone who asked was.
Dont waste money on expensive lighting and light tents. Buy 1 square
meter of white silk and make a hole in the middle for the lens. A
sheet of white perspex. Fasten the corners of the silk out of the
wayso they dont get in the way of the shot. Set your camera to macro
settings if it has it or aperture prioritydown to at least 22.
Automatic modes work good enough too. Then play with the white
balance if the colour isnt looking right. I take photos in natural
light near a window. I get a really good natural colour for the
stones and metal.

I know a few professional photographers who had spent $400,000 on
gear and yes there photos are better, but not $400,000 better. The
biggest improvements you will see is from getting really good at
usingphotoshop. Another really helpful thing is to use a camera that
can be plugged into amonitor so you can see an enlarged view of the
shot before you click soyou can see clearly exactly what is on focus
and what isnt.

If you have Adobe photoshop, elements or any average photo editing
program, this is an easy fix by 1st, adjust the levels This
determines how black is black, and how white is white. Very
important. then adjust color balance by adding some red and some
yellow. Maybe a slight tweek of brightness and contrast, but
generally not a good thing unless the pic just doesn’t begin to pop
already. If a shot was well lit to begin with, it’s a simple task. I
would suggest white cards over gold metallic, and concentrate more on
quality lighting to get a proper shot to begin with.

It is highly likely that your “white balance” setting is off. You
should be able to try different settings to see if there is any
improvement. You can also purchase a gray card from a photo shop to
allow you to set the white balance accurately. Another possible
scenario is your light is perhaps a mix of fluorescent and
incandescent or sunlight. I have found that if I take my photos
during the day, when sunlight is getting into the room, the colors
are not as good as when I photograph and night and my light source is
100% fluorescent. Of course, the white balance must be set for
fluorescent.

Well, sometimes the photos just don’t look quite like the objects we
are photographing. Personally, I have “photoshopped” (to a greater
or lesser extent) every photo I have made. Ideally, (and this has
been said before) you start with a great shot, perfectly exposed,
composed, etc…but even then, it might neeed a little help. If you
are at all comfortable with photo manipulation software, it’s fairly
easy to boost the saturation of any color in any image. The key is
to walk that fine line between accurate and deceptive. -BK

Thanks one and all for your comments and feedback on my photo
dilemma. I tried all the suggestion I could with positive results.
There definitely is the temptation to push the color past the normal
range.